Monday, July 27, 2009

"I sat, with my hands all sweaty and my heart beating in anxiety as I waited for my moment of glory. I couldn't believe it, the President of the United states of America, President Barack Obama was personally going to give me the award in front of a worldwide audience. And then he called my name…."

Like many of us, I want do something great or be known for a great (positive) act that will leave an indelible mark in the sands of time. People like Martin Luther King Jr, Martin Luther, Nelson Mandela, Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks are people who come to mind. I will like my name to be known for something….like…Adewunmi Adediji; the man who discovered the cure for AIDS! But I realize that I spend so much time thinking about what that great act will be and I must confess that it is always almost an act in futility…nothing seems so great enough yet.

I've realized that we spend so much of our time thinking and planning to achieve a great act and we then become very ambitious. Subconsciously, we are usually of the opinion that this great act will be an apex and we don't seem to think of what will happen next. If Abraham Lincoln, having finally become president had no plan to execute his governance, what would have being his legacy today? Today, it dawned on me how to achieve that true great act.

On a closer inspection of most of the people who have done such great things, we see that most of them did not plan to do what they did. Their actions were born out of a deep seated system of ideals, values and passion. For many, it was a reaction to an infringement of their value or belief system. For instance, Rosa Parks is greatly known for what she did, which simply was "sitting in a bus". Now, how great does that sound? She didn't lead a riot or a crusade neither did she fight in a war (literally speaking) but rather by her action, she became a veteran in the war against racism….my point? Her action wasn't something that was planned but rather it was spontaneously birth out of her belief in the emancipation of the Negro people of America.

Now I'm not insinuating the fact that we should not plan to achieve a great feat but rather I'm advocating that greater time should be spent in imbibing the core values of greatness within ourselves. Having a great value system will ultimately generate greatness from within you and deliver absolute greatness.

Your lifestyle of greatness will amount into great acts!

Prior to her moment of glory, Rosa Parks had been actively involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), she served in the capacity of the secretary for a couple of years. Her time there help build in her the values and further boosted the passion she needed to achieve greatness in that which she believed. So then, what do we do:

Achieve greatness daily by building character through self discipline

School yourself adequately and passionately on that which you believe.

Know this, any great act/event would have been preceded by a series of great acts..great acts of self discipline, high moral standards….so, Achieve Greatness everyday!!!

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About Me

some people see the truth but the truth seems out of place to them especially in this generation, others see the truth and know that they ought to follow it but they deliberately do away with it.... well I saw the truth and i decided to swear allegiance to live for it and by it!